Jessica Myers

7 December 2016

Heart and Soul

In Europe, the lyric poem was the essence of the Romantic movement. The lyric provided a space for poets to record their feelings from a particular moment. No longer was the poem required to tell a story, as a narrative or epic poem, but instead, the poem itself became an event, thus creating the timelessness of lyric poetry. This style also produced the ambiguous “I” and “you” that entrapped the voice of the speaker within the poem, but could be adopted by any person reading the poem. This style encouraged a unique experience which led to the construction of the individual set apart from the masses. In the same way, Romantic poetry is the heart of American Romanticism through its ability to idealize the form of abstract ideas, such as love and death, and transmit the emotions and thoughts of a speaker, which provides a window into human intuition.

Although “To My Dear and Loving Husband” was written before the Romantic movement, Anne Bradstreet’s style anticipates the idealization of an abstract idea, such as the love between a husband and wife. In her essay, “Approaching the Study of American Romantic Poetry,” Hanna Mak notes that Bradstreet’s poem “serves [as] an example of a spiritual predecessor to works within the movement, sharing a great deal of sentiment and language which appears to portend the later style.” Bradstreet’s sentiment is captured through the voice of the speaker, who in this moment is enraptured at the thought of her love for her husband and his love for her. The speaker establishes the felicity she finds from receiving her husband’s love by challenging other women to “[c]ompare with [her], ye women, if you can” (4). Her security in her husband’s love reveals the strength of their connection. Most women would desire the stability found in a love like the one described here. Since she feels singular in her husband’s love for her, she is set apart from the whole of society. The speaker describes her love for her husband in hyperbolic terms. She “prize[s] [his] love more than whole Mines of gold / Or all riches that the East doth hold” (5,6). The value of his priceless love reveals its magnitude. She also describes her love for him in a similarly hyperbolic style. Her “love is such that Rivers cannot quench, / Nor ought but love from thee give recompense” (7, 8). Her use of hyperbole indicates the strong emotion one partner feels for the other. Since both are described in this exaggerated manner, their love is equally great. A love of this size is idealized as the speaker portrays its perfection, and momentarily ignores any negativity there may be in this relationship. Their love is perfectly suspended within the confines of this lyric poem, forever idealized for the next reader to experience.

Not only does Bradstreet’s poem present a perfect picture of love, but it also opens a window into the union between the married couple. The speaker opens the poem with a depiction of the couple’s unity: “If ever two were one, then surely we” (1). The line echoes Biblical verbiage from Genesis where Adam and Eve became “one flesh.” They are united both physically and spiritually. This unity can be applied to any couple due to the ambiguous use of “we.” The universality of the “we” gives the poem a Romantic quality that allows it to transcend time. The poem itself has become an event outside of time. Despite the archaic language, it can be read and applied to a married couple today to express their feelings of unity in their own marriage. Furthermore, the couple’s love will overcome death: “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever / That when we live no more, we may live ever” (11,12). These paradoxical lines suggest that their unending love will immortalize them in time. Similarly, the timeless lines of the poem memorialize their love, sustaining it through the passing of time as each new generation reads of this couple’s undying love for one another. Ultimately, the form of the Romantic poem generates a space where an individual’s emotions can be transcribed and captured for “eternity.”

Similarly, Modernist poet, Claude McKay’s sonnet, “If We Must Die,” glorifies a noble death, despite battle’s ugliness and bloodiness, implying that death need not be meaningless or inglorious. By choosing the terms in which a person dies, they discover dignity in death which gives it significance. He calls for his “kinsmen” in battle to “nobly die, / So that [their] precious blood may not be shed / in vain” (9, 6-8). The speaker taps into mankind’s fear of dying a senseless death. He gives voice to the fear of a meaningless death that a soldier must face when entering a battle. He rallies them together under the banner of “kinsmen” who are “outnumbered” by “the common foe” (9, 10). They are the few individuals, who are willing to stand for right, fighting the masses, “the murderous, cowardly pack” (13). However, the “we” allows for a voice to be adopted by many different people. These generic terms can be applied to anyone in a tense situation, making the poem universally applicable. McKay also establishes an idealized setting that could be anywhere that involves a drastic heroic situation. These men are “[p]ressed to the wall, dying but fighting back!” (14). This ambiguous setting creates a timeless event which could encompass many different scenarios. These various Romantic elements allow McKay to reach a broader audience because many people desire an honorable death that will be memorialized and remembered by those they leave behind.

Although Romantic poetry ennobles the scene of battle, this idealism can obscure the gruesome atrocities of battle; however, McKay’s poem includes primitive imagery that allows the reader to perceive the savage battle for survival. Primitive language appears when describing the enemy the men are battling. The speaker declares they are “mad and hungry dogs” and “monsters” (3,8). He dehumanizes them so that the fighters can justify killing them in battle. This becomes self-defense rather than the taking of human lives. Killing these men because they are animals is a much more defensible position. The speaker declares that the fighters should not die “like hogs” (1). They do not want to be slaughtered like defenseless animals who die senselessly for the benefit of others. They do not want to be “[h]unted and penned in an inglorious spot” because this would remove the dignity and bravery of their deaths (2). However, many times being “[h]unted and penned” is the true scene of a battle (2). Although portrayed as negative imagery, he still incorporates the scene as a reminder that battle can be gruesome and death can be meaningless. The poets who romanticize battles only show a glimmer of the true horrors of the fight. They focus on the glory of dying a “noble” death despite insurmountable odds. McKay’s inclusion of primitivism within this Romantic poem assigns the battle a touch of reality.

Romantic poetry is an essential instrument for American Romanticism because it captures a concentrated and isolated moment that depicts the inner thoughts and feelings of the individual and dignifies their abstract ideals. The moment within the poem is a timeless event that can be applied universally due to the ambiguity of the speaker and setting. The Romantic style gives voice to the hopes, fears, and desires of an individual. This genre dignifies the emotions of the speaker, which enables the reader to align them with their own beliefs. Therefore, scrutinizing the poem for Romantic elements is useful since it forces the reader to assess how the author creates meaning and appreciate the purpose behind the poem. A poem may be enjoyed at the surface level of understanding, but to truly value the poem in its entirety, the layers of meaning must be peeled back.